AGARICS WITH WHITE SPORES 



if there exists the least doubt or suspicion. 

 Bear in mind, however, that the poisonous 

 fungi are not injurious to the touch, so that 

 all may be examined with impunity. Ama- 

 nita possesses the general characters of 

 Lepiota, likewise certain additional ones 

 which serve clearly to distinguish it. The 

 white spores (and usually white gills), the 

 annulus, and gills free from the stem are just 

 as in Lepiota; but there is in Amanita also a 

 volva or universal veil, which in the mature 

 mushroom appears usually as a cup at the 

 base of the stem, and sometimes remnants 

 of it are carried up by the pileus as frosty 

 scales. In the button stage this universal 

 veil is an outer skin or envelope, and as the 

 plant expands it bursts through this en- 

 velope, leaving more or less of a cup, or at 

 least a broken ring, at the base; and if the 

 upper part of the envelope adheres to the 

 cup, it is broken into many scales, or frosty 

 patches, as the pileus grows. Now if one 

 pulls up an Amanita carelessly, the volva 

 might not be detected, thus suggesting 



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